Whether you are small one-man business or growing bigger than that, all business owners continually need to look at improving the business. As we say you are always continually trying to build a bigger better stronger ship to sail. No matter how busy you are, you should never leave your business to remain static and there is always room for improvement. Making improvements to make your business better is fun but requires you to work on your business for some time. Often the key to this is to designate some time to work on the business rather than in it as we often do, working in it means just in the business servicing and taking care of normal business or trade and not improving businesses. It is also important to balance your time and put priority into the areas which you think will return the most bang for your time.
Here are some areas which we think will give your business the biggest gains.
1. Keep score, it is important to keep it simple, accurate and cheap to run scoreboard. Just as we watch sport and know the score, and play to the score, so should businesses. If this is hard for you then hire someone who can bundle up your services to include bookkeeping and regular monthly reporting so that you have the accounting information to help grow your business rather than doing what most average businesses do which is to fly blind without current financial performance indicators. A good accountant will help you spend time on a part of the business you may neglect because of your poor understanding.
2. Set goals and keep these alive through your monthly reporting process. For instance, if you wish to succeed in a certain level of sales in your financial year, break this down into a regular monthly budget. You will be surprised how this can motivate you and guide you into reaching your goal. Know where you want to head, then build it with a month by month plan.
3. Learn how to market you and your business properly. Surprisingly many effective marketing techniques are at very low cost.
4. Change your presentations. These may be your sales presentations in which you need to have a structured and successful saws presentation technique. You may want to script and improve how you handle phone enquiries, as improvements of tweaks in this area can dramatically increase your conversions and improve your sales performance and business performance. You might wish to also conduct seminars or business networking presentations which can dramatically improve your sales lead generation. Lastly you may wish to present yourself through social media or YouTube to explain or more distinguish yourself in the market. YouTube is a great way to answer a commonly asked question of your business.
5. Always look at your internal processes and aim to improve your efficiency and know-how. Look at using great resources such as information technology or software. As well as standardising procedures, checklists and processes throughout the business.
6. All good businesses will grow through delegation of duties to capable staff. The business should continually look at what areas are sucking up a lot of his or her time and where possible delegating these to the staff. It is important to invest time developing staff as this activity can save an abundance of time down the track such as them teaching your future staff rather than you. As I like to say, create a monster, who can create more monsters who can handle just about everything for you.
7. Business owners are often neglecting own bodies and can get run down and sick. A business person needs an abundance of energy so they must look after their bodies and have a healthy lifestyle. Keeping yourself alive a lot longer has to be good for your business, don't you think? Try to keep this perspective throughout your life.
8. A great way to improve your productivity again is to take a holiday. Make that move and book your holiday, make the arrangements for it to work and build the business so that it can live without you even if it's for a short-term. Remember it's only a business where it can work without you. If you are short of a holiday idea, ask an agent or just start talking about it for ideas.
Romeo Caporaso is an Australian Tax Agent, specializing in small to medium business improvement and marketing. Visit our website for membership to our website including our highly successful Better Business and Creating Wealth E-course at http://www.taxaccountingadelaide.com
Copyright Romeo Caporaso
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